About midway through this past weekend’s Colorado Relay, it hit me why I like these relays so much — beyond the obvious joys of competitive running, that is.

It’s like a sleep-over for adults.

For 24 hours we got to forget about frustrations at work, obligations at home and play with our friends. We ran hard when it was our turn but got to act like kids playing hookey when we weren’t running. We got to be around hundreds of like-minded strangers who, we could plainly see, were having just as much fun as we were.

The past few weekends offered several more reasons why Colorado has to be the best place in the world to be an endurance athlete.

On Saturday, nearly 1,000 took part in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race won by Lance Armstrong (who, let us not forget, competed in it last year and did not win).

Also on Saturday, more than 1,600 completed the 13.3-mile Pikes Peak Ascent. On Sunday more than 800 did the Pikes Peak Marathon.

The previous weekend, the venerable Georgetown-Idaho Springs Half Marathon had a record 3,000 entrants with a massive late registration of some 400 over the last 36 hours before the race.

Then you have the Wild West Relay, held this month, and the Colorado Relay, coming up next month. Plus the great bike tours like the Triple Bypass and Copper Triangle. Next weekend offers the Leadville 100 Trail Run and the six-day, 113-mile Transrockies Run from Buena Vista to Beaver Creek.

Apart from organized events, Front Range canyons and Lookout Mountain attract hundreds if not thousands of cyclists every day. As I write this, I’m in a Colorado Springs Starbucks, planning a ride in the geological wonderland of the Garden of the Gods as soon as I finish writing about the Pikes Peak Marathon. This is the day after doing a long run in Washington Park, which was teeming with runners and cyclists.